1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer systems and computer system application software. More specifically, it relates to system software intended to execute on computer networks for creating a high number of user data sets, such as user account information.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In many computer network environments, such as in universities, large corporations, or government entities, it is often necessary to create computer network accounts for new users. For example, when a new class of students joins a school or university, each student is typically assigned a computer network user account so they can logon and use the university computer system facilities. The same is true in numerous other settings in which hundreds or even thousands of users have to be assigned a user account on a computer system. In many instances, these new users are assigned user accounts at a particular time, e.g., at the end of the month or week, or at the beginning of a new semester.
The process for entering the data necessary for each user to create a new user account is typically slow, error-prone, and time-consuming. A system administrator (or someone working with the administrator) can enter data on each new user one at a time. This can take many hours once the number of new users gets to be significant, such as a hundred. Data items such as a user shell, a password, and so on need to be entered besides the new user name. In some cases scripts or other batch programs can be written to automate the process. However, this has also proven difficult in many instances since the basic new user data must still be entered one user at a time. The data must be entered into a file, typically without the help of a user interface.
Such scripts or batch programs also have the drawback of not allowing the system administrator to perform other tasks or jobs, or use other tools, while the process is creating the new accounts. In other words, the process, such as a virtual machine, is not free to perform other functions. The system administrator must wait for the process of creating new user accounts to finish.
Problems also arise if a separate thread is used to process the creation of new user accounts. It has been shown that when a thread in a virtual machine is used to create multiple user accounts, both the GUI associated with the user account creation tool and the thread are terminated if the system administrator exits the virtual machine. In addition, by using a thread, once a system administrator or user exits the main thread that is doing all the processing, a second thread spawned from the main thread to perform the user account creation would have been exited as well, i.e., it would have died as well.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a process in which a system administrator can create a high volume of user accounts in a computer network in an efficient manner. It would be desirable if the system administrator could use a GUI to enter the information on a new user, thereby speeding up the process of entering the user information. It would also be desirable to enable the system administrator to use other tools or perform other tasks while the new user accounts are being created instead of the user account creation time being down time for the administrator.